Douglas-Westwood: Floating Production Expenditure to Double by 2017

Douglas-Westwood (DW) forecast that between 2013 and 2017 $91bn will be spent on floating production systems (FPS) – an increase of 100% over the preceding five-year period.

This growth is driven by factors such as a larger proportion of newbuilds and conversions compared to redeployments, a greater degree of local content resulting in increased costs and general offshore industry cost inflation.

Floating Production is firmly established as a cost effective method of developing oil and gas fields around the world. In water depths beyond 500m floating production systems become one of the few options open to operators, an increasingly important factor as production moves into deeper waters.

DW forecast that 63% of global FPS market spend will be in deep waters.

FPSOs dominate

FPSOs represent by far the largest segment of the market both in numbers (94 installations) and forecast Capex (80%) over the 2013-2017 period. FPSSs account for the second largest segment of Capex (10%), followed by TLPs, then spars.

Latin America accounts for 29% of the forecast  installations and 37% of the projected Capex.Most installations to date have been in Petrobras operated fields off Brazil and this is likely to continue, albeit substantial delays are expected for Petrobras’ offshore E&P investment.

Asia is the next most important region in numerical terms (24), but Africa is so in terms of forecast Capex ($18.2bn).

Modelling & Forecast Generation Analysis is based on DW’s in-house Oil & Gas database which details around 1,000 FPS projects.

More info

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Press Release, October 5, 2012